Finding the Field (ATOM Study Guide)

In Australia, a new and rapidly expanding liberal country, the feeling for change has brought hope and it turns an optimistic eye to the future. This feeling for change found its greatest expression in the brand new and controversial modernist National Gallery of Victoria and the radical new art it chose to display in its inaugural exhibition The Field in 1968. The Field brought together forty artists and seventy-four works of the newest movement in art, an unprecedented decision at that time. By not exhibiting the established greats, past or present, the gallery made a radical statement: that it was to engage with contemporary art in a major way. In so doing the exhibition ignited great controversy among critics and artists, many of whom were passionately opposed to the new abstraction, fearing the death of art and calling the artists unpatriotic, with the gallery’s endorsement making it the more bitter.

The work in The Field – hard-edged abstract, minimalist, optical, constructivist and colour field – drew from new American trends rather than the traditional European. It was displayed in a space with silver papered walls inspired by Andy Warhol's Factory and presented with a curatorial style and flair that was a precedent for a national institution in Australia at the time. The style was so radically divergent from the artistic tradition of Australia, which was basically figures and figures in the landscape, that critics denied it merit, decried the lack of reference to the Australian environment, were affronted by the lack of 'reputations' in many of the young artists and, most of all, feared the end of art. But the exhibition had its magic and eventually found its way into the hearts and the history books and continues to intrigue art lovers and artists alike. It signified a very particular point in the history of Australian art and artists' engagement with the world, and foreshadowed the great change that art was about to undergo. Fifty years on and in the year of the NGV's anniversary, The Field is to be restaged. The current director of the NGV, Tony Elwood, has taken on co-curating with Beckett Rozentals but the main curatorial task is given to Beckett, the young female curator of Australian art at the NGV.

Curriculum Links

This documentary can be linked to the following subjects in the Australian Curriculum:

• The Arts – Visual Art
• The Humanities – History
• English

And the general capabilities of:

• Critical and Creative Thinking

Finding the Field can be directly connected to the following Years 9 and 10 Visual Arts content descriptors:

• Analyse a range of visual artworks from contemporary and past times to explore differing viewpoints and enrich their visual art-making, starting with Australian artworks, including those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and consider international artworks.
• Present ideas for displaying artworks and evaluate displays of artworks.

And the band description for Visual Arts Years 9 – 10:

• Use historical and conceptual explanations to critically reflect on the contribution of visual arts practitioners as they make and respond to visual artworks.
• Adapt ideas, representations and practices from selected artists and use them to inform their own personal aesthetic when producing a series of artworks that are conceptually linked, and present their series to an audience.

Finding the Field also connects to the Humanities – History Curriculum at Year 10, specifically the content descriptors below:

• The US civil rights movement and its influence on Australia
• The continuing nature of efforts to secure civil rights and freedoms in Australia and throughout the world, such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
• Australia's contribution to international popular culture
• Continuity and change in beliefs and values that have influenced the Australian way of life
• The film can be used as part of the English curriculum and connected to the following Years 9 and 10 English content descriptions:
• Compare and evaluate a range of representations of individuals and groups in different historical, social and cultural contexts.
• Analyse and evaluate how people, cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented in texts, including media texts, through language, structural and/ or visual choices.
• Identify and analyse implicit or explicit values, beliefs and assumptions in texts and how these are influenced by purposes and likely audiences.

Finding the Field can also be connected to the following statements from the Critical and Creative Thinking capability:

Critical and creative thinking involves students thinking broadly and deeply using skills, behaviours and dispositions such as reason, logic, resourcefulness, imagination and innovation in all learning areas at school and in their lives beyond school. Thinking that is productive, purposeful and intentional is at the centre of effective learning. By applying a sequence of thinking skills, students develop an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the processes they can use whenever they encounter problems, unfamiliar information and new ideas. In addition, the progressive development of knowledge about thinking and the practice of using thinking strategies can increase students' motivation for, and management of, their own learning. They become more confident and autonomous problem-solvers and thinkers. Concept formation is the mental activity that helps us compare, contrast and classify ideas, objects, and events. Concept learning can be concrete or abstract and is closely allied with metacognition. What has been learnt can be applied to future examples. It underpins the organising elements. Dispositions such as inquisitiveness, reasonableness, intellectual flexibility, open- and fair-mindedness, a readiness to try new ways of doing things and consider alternatives, and persistence promote and are enhanced by critical and creative thinking.